Issey Miyake Creative Director @Design Indaba
We believe Design Indaba is up there on the list of ‘top must attend‘ design events UNIVERSALLY… much desired by designers and creatives the world over, although we’re sure the lovely city of Cape Town helps the whip appeal. Bravo to the team behind it for flying the South African flag so high and shaping an event of such high global standards (not that it’s not expected!), we hope it continues. This years exciting news is the announcement that Issey Miyake’s creative director will be presenting… now not only is this Editorista’s favourite perfume *hint hint*, but she was also lucky enough to lap up their flagship shop in Tokyo last year and was totally blown away. So start nagging your bosses and get booking so you can take advantage of early bird discounts for this years Design Indaba – more info below: Just last year, Dai Fujiwara unleashed his debut collection as creative director for Issey Miyake on the Paris runway. Of course, Issey Miyake addicts would have been following the rise of this young textile engineer since at least 1998, upon the launch of the award-winning A-Poc series. A-Poc is an acronym for “a piece of cloth” and describes Fujiwara’s proprietary software-driven design process, which weaves entire pieces of clothing with no sewing necessary. The technique represents a whole new creative, technological and ecological rapid prototyping proposition to the fashion industry. And don’t even get us started on Fujiwara’s design wedding project that saw some of the world’s most renowned design companies get involved in the big day of an ordinary Finnish couple… Rather come hear Dai Fujiwara tell you about that himself at Design Indaba 2009. Book before 12 December 2008 to make use of the Early Bird and Alumni discounts. Click here to...
Call for Entries: South – a travelling Expo.
Get your creativity seen in the innovative SOUTH travelling exhibition showing off the best of South African Creativity, kicking off at Design Indaba in Feb in Cape Town and then moving on to take over the world. The top three designs will win money, imali, moolah and by the way they’re looking for a range of creativity and design. Hurry up/Sheshani, entries close in November. SOUTH seeks to uncover the finest examples of South African creativity across a broad spectrum of disciplines and forms. And, for the first time on one platform, showcase a dazzling array of our finest creative produce. ART. ARCHITECTURE. ADVERTISING. CRAFT. DESIGN. FASHION. FILM&VIDEO. JEWELLERY. MUSIC. NEW MEDIA. PERFORMANCE ART. PHOTOGRAPHY. The kind of creative excellence that will best infl uence the judges is neither black nor white, nor ethnic, nor neutral, nor euro, nor west, nor east. It’s a harmony out of contradiction. A balance of extremes. That fine line between order and chaos. SOUTH seeks executions that capture the soul of this mystique. Design Indaba has collaborated with the Creative Circle and The Loerie Awards to launch the Creative Alliance. Dedicated to promoting South African creativity on an international front, the alliance will be initiating a travelling exhibition sponsored by the SABC. The exhibition will debut at Design Indaba 2009. Entitled South, the exhibition is a celebration of the gloriously positive, ridiculously naïve and relentlessly spontaneous creative industries inherent in our country. Seeking to encapsulate the bold, lawless, cheeky, crossover, politically incorrect flavour of the South African imagination, the exhibition is a celebration of the home of high-class ashtrays made out of elephant dung and pap served with sushi. The exhibition will comprise of existing local and international designs which best encapsulate “South”, as well as the award, open to participation from creatives across all industries including advertising, design, film and video, music, performing arts, fashion design, new media, publishing, radio and television, industrial design, visual art, architecture and crafts. Three prizes will be awarded. * The overall winner receives R100 000. * Second place receives R50 000. * Third place receives R25 000. Onwards… upwards… southwards… viva! For entry forms and more information visit: www.designindaba.com/south Enquiries: Michael Purdham at Interactive Africa Tel: (021) 465 9966 Fax: (021) 465 9978 south@interactiveafrica.com Onwards… upwards… southwards…...
Japan Calling. Arty Southern Africans take note.
Representah’s all know how obsessed we are with Japan… we tell you again, what ever you do, get there. Anyway, one of our favourite creative arts Japanese magazines, SHIFT, has asked us to share some of their current ‘Call to Entries’ for a bunch of Japanese-based competitions including digital film, art, t-shirt design and calender design. They really really want Southern Africans to represent, offering up prizes worth R200k (never mind the air tickets to get to go to Japan!) so make sure you get amongst and check out the deadlines. Read all about it below: – UT GRAND PRIX 2009 – AMUSE ARTJAM 2008 – 12TH JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL – DOTMOV FESTIVAL 2008 – SHIFT 2009 CALENDAR COMPETITIONUT GRAND PRIX 2009 UNIQLO’s annual T-shirt design competition since 2004, the 5th “UT Grand Prix” will call for entries from July 15th. UNIQLO has actively developed its global expansion as a casual wear brand from Japan, opening flagship stores in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Korea and China, and also shown the global promotion campaigns that world people can participate such as UNIQLOCK and UT LOOP! Based on the concept of “T-shirt Design Olympics”, UT Grand Prix calls for T-shirt designs from young & upcoming creators from all over the world. Works will be chosen from more than 10,000 submissions in the first and second phases of judgment, & these will be shown on the web. In the final stage, 20 designs will be selected by presiding guest judges, & these designs will then be sold as UT (UNIQLO T-shirt) at UNIQLO stores. Cash & other prizes will be also presented to the winner(s). The Grand Prix (top) prize is 3 million JPY (or equivalent in local currency at current rates). Submission Period: July 15th – September 21st, 2008. More info here. AMUSE ARTJAM 2008 AMUSE ARTJAM, a new art competition by a Japanese agency for all-round entertainment “AMUSE”, will open calling for entries from August 1st. This is a competition that has counted more than 5000 submissions and total 70000 visitors in the past 6 events, gathering attentions as a gateway for young artists to success. This year as a new project, they will open a new gallery for contemporary art called “ArtJamContemporary” in the art complex building “NADiff A/P/A/R/T” in Ebisu, Tokyo. The participants of ARTJAM will be mainly featured in the gallery and sent to the world. Anyone can participate in this competition regardless of genders, nations, ages, educations, professionals or amateurs, and genres. However, the competition winners need to participate in the award ceremony, which will be held in The Museum Of Kyoto on...
Durbanites write for us @ Fashion Week
We’re always going on about how much of our great artistic talent comes from Durban, the hot spot of creativity. Well prepare yourselves for the 4th MTN Durban Fashion Week that’s set to shine all over the east coast. Represent is looking for hip and happening Fashion fundi’s to cover this years Fashion Week for us. Please email editor@represent.co.za and tell me why it should be you. You’ll need to be able to write in fluent English although we always like a touch of spice, and have your own ditigal camera or a friend that’s a good photographer. Young, energetic and funky MTN Durban Fashion Week, now in its fourth year, is once again set against the backdrop of Durban’s vibrant ambiance, magnificent Indian Ocean coastline and mixture of African, Eastern and Western cultural influences. MTN Durban Fashion Week 2008 is set to be a visual feast, presented by award-winning South African and international designers. Positioned as the cradle of South Africa’s young and emerging talent, MTN Durban Fashion Week 2008 will marry creativity with business, youth with experience and fashion with a cause, to present a truly spectacular and memorable event. Developing and supporting young and emerging talent has always ranked high on the list of priorities for convener and co-owner of MTN Durban Fashion Week, Vanashree Singh. Concurrent with their annual young designer search at top design schools, MTN Durban Fashion Week has embarked on a ground breaking initiative, partnering with the KZN Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism (DACT) to launch an exploratory programme across KZN, whose main aim is to seek, cultivate and nurture would-be designers who have the talent but lack the means to achieve success in the fashion industry. “MTN Durban Fashion Week has always taken the fashion business seriously and intrinsic to the success of any business is investment at a grassroots level. KZN has a wealth of exceptional design talent and our event presents exciting opportunities to showcase to a wide audience. The South African fashion industry is under continuous threat from foreign imports. We believe by investing in young South African talent, we are promoting Proudly South African brands and thereby making a positive impact on South Africa’s emerging fashion talent. Young talent – their creativity and hard work – is the very essence of what makes MTN Durban Fashion Week a success and we are proud of their achievements.” said Vanashree, This was reiterated by Evan Schiff, spokesperson for, African Fashion International (AFI) who are joint owners of MTN Durban Fashion Week, “MTN Durban Fashion Week fulfils a vital role on the local fashion calendar which falls in line...
London 2012 Logo causing a blog stir
Londoner’s are not impressed with the 2012 Olympics logo. And to be honest, nor are we – it’s pretty fugly. Have a long look at it… what do you see? Stare long and hard now – can you make out anything? It’s supposed to be a “powerful” and “modern” rendition of the letters 2012…. Reminds me of when I was in Std 3 trying to draw ‘cool’ graffiti style titles for my school projects. Badly. Just to check if we’re out of touch with logo design and branding trends, we asked one of the best designers we know to have a look and tell us his thoughts – he said, and we quote: “What is that? Jeez that’s crap.” Your thoughts? Bloggers are venting their anger and confusion around the logo which looks to be a little too abstract for the everyday man. What will be interesting is what happens from here… if enough bloggers voice their opinion, will the public voice hold any weight? This is where blogging and the concept of citizen journalism gets interesting. The popular (and free) underground daily newspaper Metro gives us some of the Bloggers POV – read more here – good old British sense of humour! ‘OMG! The ‘London 2012′ logo makes me want to pluck out my eyes. And it’s going to be everywhere I work. I may die. Or kill. Or both.’ Reynolds, Twitter ‘I would say I’m left speechless but it’s more muttering and bashing my head against my keyboard… Fear not, should you not like pink though as it comes in a further variety of vomit inducing colours – yes, it’s a pick and choose wreck of a logo.’ www.diaryofawebsite.com ‘Despite the fact that if you squint it looks a bit like a couple engaging in an act of oral sex and despite the fact that one of the Londonist co-editors described it as a “joke”, I really like it. To those of you who agree with me – I fear we might be part of an oppressed minority for the next five years.’ Ben, londonist.com ‘The 2012 London Olympics logo looks like bad stone age art.’ dfl, Twitter ‘There were lots of good things about the 80s. Style was not one of them. And yet, this identity screams 1985 at me like a dodgy set of legwarmers.’...
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